Mythology and the classics are only taught to the gifted classes in the school that my DH and his friends went to. When I asked DH if he'd ever read any of the classics, he said "uh..we read 'James and the Giant Peach' for english lit..but that was the only one..and we never studied mythology. Only the gifted kids got to study that stuff."

Then a friend of mine with an 11 year old daughter pulled her out of the gifted class because she kept crying because mythology was "too hard to learn".

One of my favorite books when I was that age was "Bullfinch's Mythology". *eats more Reeses Pieces* please pass me the wine...

I loved myths, fairy tales and legends as a kid. It was all just stories, and I was an avid reader, even at that age. I have my grandmother's copy of "Bullfinch's Mythology" and may have to get it out this evening in reaction. I don't ever recall studying it in school-I just liked it so read the stories on my own (my school was small enough that there were really no gifted classes).

Here is a nice glass of red wine for you. I also grabbed a bottle of port from DH's stash (tawny, if you care) and will be opening it soon. I brought some cheese and crackers so that we had something of substance to go with the chocolate and alcoholic beverages. :>

Logged

Lynn

"Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat." Robert A. Heinlein

Mythology and the classics are only taught to the gifted classes in the school that my DH and his friends went to. When I asked DH if he'd ever read any of the classics, he said "uh..we read 'James and the Giant Peach' for english lit..but that was the only one..and we never studied mythology. Only the gifted kids got to study that stuff."

Then a friend of mine with an 11 year old daughter pulled her out of the gifted class because she kept crying because mythology was "too hard to learn".One of my favorite books when I was that age was "Bullfinch's Mythology". *eats more Reeses Pieces* please pass me the wine...

I loved myths, fairy tales and legends as a kid. It was all just stories, and I was an avid reader, even at that age. I have my grandmother's copy of "Bullfinch's Mythology" and may have to get it out this evening in reaction. I don't ever recall studying it in school-I just liked it so read the stories on my own (my school was small enough that there were really no gifted classes).

We didn't study it a lot, but my English teacher in 7th grade took us all to the theatre to watch "Clash of the Titans" when it came out (1981). Then we discussed the mythology. I also bought books on the topic because, come on - Greek mythology is AWESOME!

I don't know how people can follow references in movies, etc without knowing at least some Greek mythology. When I was doing a week-long course for OBE, the English presenter asked us, "So who was Prometheus?" I was the only person who knew!!! In a room of 40 teachers!!! And what gets me is how modern writers often present the stories of, say, Sisyphus and Tantalus as terrible tragedies because all they know is their punishments in the underworld. "Oh, the guy with the rock. The guy who tried to eat/drink and the branches bent away..." If they knew the legends they'd know those guys got what was coming to them.

Sorry, I went on a bit there. Greek (I made a typo the first time and typed "Geek", heh) mythology underpins a lot of our modern culture. I think people need to know this stuff.

I loved myths, fairy tales and legends as a kid. It was all just stories, and I was an avid reader, even at that age. I have my grandmother's copy of "Bullfinch's Mythology" and may have to get it out this evening in reaction. I don't ever recall studying it in school-I just liked it so read the stories on my own (my school was small enough that there were really no gifted classes).

We didn't study it a lot, but my English teacher in 7th grade took us all to the theatre to watch "Clash of the Titans" when it came out (1981). Then we discussed the mythology. I also bought books on the topic because, come on - Greek mythology is AWESOME!

I don't know how people can follow references in movies, etc without knowing at least some Greek mythology. When I was doing a week-long course for OBE, the English presenter asked us, "So who was Prometheus?" I was the only person who knew!!! In a room of 40 teachers!!! And what gets me is how modern writers often present the stories of, say, Sisyphus and Tantalus as terrible tragedies because all they know is their punishments in the underworld. "Oh, the guy with the rock. The guy who tried to eat/drink and the branches bent away..." If they knew the legends they'd know those guys got what was coming to them.

Sorry, I went on a bit there. Greek (I made a typo the first time and typed "Geek", heh) mythology underpins a lot of our modern culture. I think people need to know this stuff.

THIS!

I picked up Edith Hamilton's 'Mythology' when I was nine. (It had a flying horse on the cover, how cool!) I've been a mythology ever since. I don't understand how someone can go through school without having a bit of Classical background. It makes so many things more understandable, and strings together what otherwise might be a whole bunch of unrelated cultural dialogues.

I was lucky though. In sixth grade, The Illiad and The Odyssey were read to us for story time. I helped with the name pronunciations.

When you refuse to watch the discovery channel because you disagree too much with how they produce some of their documentaries.

When you watch even the shoddily-done ones anyway, just because they use battle footage from your re-enactment society's events.

"That's Bob...that's Laura....ooh, there's Steve...aha! See there? In the middle of the advancing ranks? Fourteenth hat from the left?* That's ME."

*I always seem to end up behind the massive musketeer built like a brick outhouse, so my television stardom is limited to my hat and occasional flash of left sleeve.

Hehe! I'm the same. My ballet school made the local news, and I watched the footage carefully about eighty times, before realising that the only bit of me you could see was the edge of my tutu. One of the older girls managed to be perfectly between me and the camera for the entire three minute clip.

I had some old guy I don't recognize come up to me at church last month and tell me "I saw you on TV!" I almost asked if he had gone to Dragon*Con - he totally didn't look the type - but about five minutes later I remembered I had been on the local TV station a month earlier for my search dog team Glad I didn't ask about Dragon*Con out loud!

I had a moment of sad yesterday. I was at initiation for Theta and all of the actives were killing time waiting for all of the new members to arrive. Everyone was goofing off (we had all been there since at least 7 am. It was now 9:15...) and I had given up trying to sleep before we started. So, in the spirit of what everyone else was doing, I took the blanket I had brought with me and did "Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match".

The friend that was standing next to me asked "Oh, from Mrs. Doubtfire?"